Peter Rhodes on rising crime, cold old winters and a slowdown in cycling
Just when you thought the world was being taken over by cyclists comes news that pedalling is in decline. No surprises there. England recorded a spike in cycling when the pandemic reduced the number of vehicles on the roads and made cycling safer. Now that traffic is back to normal, cyclists are hanging up their cycle clips.
'Twas ever thus. The history of cycling is boom and bust. At its peaks, cycling has been seen as fashionable, friendly, planet-saving and revolutionary. In its troughs bikes have been viewed as slow, cold, dangerous thief-magnets. Today cycling is taking a bit of a knock, tomorrow it will surely recover. That's the thing about bikes. They're cyclical.
According to weekend reports, cops are bracing themselves for a winter of crime, a breakdown of public order and even corruption within police forces. Police chiefs are said to be drawing up contingency plans. Now, would these be the same police chiefs who ignore burglaries, de-criminalise shoplifting and seem to specialise in recruiting wrong 'uns? As ye sow, chief constable, so shall ye reap.
Meanwhile, the daily pleasure trips across the Channel, a joint enterprise between Albanians-R-Go and UK Border Force, provides a fascinating insight into how a liberal, civilised democracy which believes in the rule of law competes against a bunch of amoral crooks. The crooks win, hands down, every time.
They even turn our ultimate threat into an advertising gimmick. HM Government thunders: “Cheat the asylum system and we'll send you to Rwanda.” The people-smugglers re-cycle this as: “Book your tickets now before the Rwanda plan begins.” They are outwitting us, outsailing us and outmarketing us. Maybe they should be running the railways.
Thanks for your messages on the energy crisis, especially your recollections of growing strong and healthy in the 1950s and 1960s when all glazing was single and if you didn't get ice on the inside of your windows then it wasn't a proper winter. Ah, those were the days. Icy windows? Listen, we had to scrape ice off the inside of our ovens. We slept 12 to a bed and five of them were dogs. (More of the same always welcome).
